Charles Alexandre,
vicomteA viscount is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl or a count .-Etymology:...
de Calonne (1734 – 30 October 1802) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
statesman, best known for his involvement in the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
.
Born at
DouaiDouai is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some 40 km from Lille and 25 km from Arras, Douai is home to one of the region's most impressive belfries.The population of the metropolitan area, including...
of an upper-class family, he entered the legal profession and became successively
lawyerA lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person licensed to practice law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain stability, and deliver...
to the general council of
ArtoisArtois is a former province of northern France. Its territory has an area of around 4000 km² and a population of about one million. Its principal cities are Arras , Saint-Omer, Lens and Béthune.-Location:...
, procureur to the
parlementThe political institutions of the Parlement in ancien régime France developed out of the previous council of the king, the Conseil du roi or curia regis, and consequently had ancient and customary rights of consultation and deliberation. In the thirteenth century, judicial functions were added...
of Douai,
maître des requêtesMaître des requêtes is an official title carried by certain high-level magistrates and administrators in France and some other European countries since the Middle Ages.-In France under the Ancien Régime:The maîtres des requêtes ordinaires...
,
intendantThe title of intendant has been used in several countries through history. Traditionally, it refers to the holder of a public administrative office...
of
MetzMetz is a city in the northeast of France, capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. It is located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers....
(1768) and of
LilleLille is a city in northern France. It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
(1774). He seems to have been a man with notable business abilities and an entrepreneurial spirit, while generally unscrupulous in his political actions.
Charles Alexandre,
vicomteA viscount is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl or a count .-Etymology:...
de Calonne (1734 – 30 October 1802) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
statesman, best known for his involvement in the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
.
Rise to prominence
Born at
DouaiDouai is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some 40 km from Lille and 25 km from Arras, Douai is home to one of the region's most impressive belfries.The population of the metropolitan area, including...
of an upper-class family, he entered the legal profession and became successively
lawyerA lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person licensed to practice law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain stability, and deliver...
to the general council of
ArtoisArtois is a former province of northern France. Its territory has an area of around 4000 km² and a population of about one million. Its principal cities are Arras , Saint-Omer, Lens and Béthune.-Location:...
, procureur to the
parlementThe political institutions of the Parlement in ancien régime France developed out of the previous council of the king, the Conseil du roi or curia regis, and consequently had ancient and customary rights of consultation and deliberation. In the thirteenth century, judicial functions were added...
of Douai,
maître des requêtesMaître des requêtes is an official title carried by certain high-level magistrates and administrators in France and some other European countries since the Middle Ages.-In France under the Ancien Régime:The maîtres des requêtes ordinaires...
,
intendantThe title of intendant has been used in several countries through history. Traditionally, it refers to the holder of a public administrative office...
of
MetzMetz is a city in the northeast of France, capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. It is located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers....
(1768) and of
LilleLille is a city in northern France. It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
(1774). He seems to have been a man with notable business abilities and an entrepreneurial spirit, while generally unscrupulous in his political actions. In the terrible crisis preceding the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
, when successive ministers tried in vain to replenish the exhausted royal
treasuryA treasury is any place where the currency or items of high monetary value are kept. The term was first used in Classical times to describe the votive buildings erected to house gifts to the gods, such as the Siphnian Treasury in Delphi or many similar buildings erected in Olympia, Greece by...
, Calonne was summoned as
Controller-General of Finances, an office he assumed on 3 November 1783.
He owed the position to the
Comte de VergennesCharles Gravier, comte de Vergennes was a French statesman and diplomat. He served as Foreign Minister during the reign of Louis XVI, notably during the American War of Independence.-Diplomatic service:...
, who for over three years continued to support him. According to the
HabsburgThe Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The capital was mainly Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when the capital was Prague...
ambassador, his public image was extremely poor. Calonne immediately set about remedying the fiscal crisis, and he found in Louis XVI enough support to create a vast and ambitious plan of revenue-raising and administrative centralization. He presented the king with his plan on 20 August 1786. At its heart was a new land tax, which would replace the old vingtieme taxes and finally sweep away the fiscal exemptions of the privileged orders. The new tax would be administered by a system of provincial assemblies elected by the local property owners at parish, district and provincial level. This central proposal was accompanied by a further package of rationalizing reform, including free trade in grain and abolition of France's myriad internal customs barriers. It was in effect one, if not the most, comprehensive attempt at enlightened reform during the reign of Louis XVI.
Measures
In taking office he found debts of 113 million livres, debts caused by France's involvement in the American Revolution among other reasons, and no means of paying them. At first he attempted to obtain credit, and to support the government by means of loans so as to maintain public confidence in its
solvencyIn finance or business, solvency is the ability of an entity to pay its debts. Solvency can also be described as the ability of a corporation to meet its long-term fixed expenses and to accomplish long-term expansion and growth. The better a company's solvency, the better it is financially...
. In October 1785 he recoined the
gold coinA gold coin is a coin made mostly or entirely of gold. Gold has been used for coins practically since the invention of coinage, originally because of gold's intrinsic value...
age, and he developed the
caisse d'escompte (dealing in
cash discountsDiscounts and allowances are reductions to a basic price of goods or services. They can occur anywhere in the distribution channel, modifying either the manufacturer's list price , the retail price , or the list price Discounts and allowances are reductions to a basic price of goods or services....
). Calonne's eventual reform package, which was introduced to the Assembly of Notables consisted of 5 major points:
1) Cut Government Spending
2) Create a revival of free trade methods
3) Authorize the sale of Church property
4) Equalization of salt and tobacco taxes
5) Establish a universal land tax
As all these measures failed, he proposed to the king the suppression of internal customs
dutiesIn economics, a duty is a kind of tax, often associated with customs, a payment due to the revenue of a state, levied by force of law. It is a tax on certain items purchased abroad...
, and argued in favor of the
taxation of the propertyProperty tax, or millage tax, is an ad valorem tax that an owner is required to pay on the value of the property being taxed. Property tax can be defined as "generally, tax imposed by municipalities upon owners of property within their jurisdiction based on the value of such property."There are...
of
nobles and clergyThe Estates of the realm were the broad divisions of society, usually distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners recognized in the Middle Ages and later, in some parts of Europe...
.
Anne Robert Jacques TurgotAnne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune, often referred to as Turgot , was a French economist and statesman...
and
Jacques NeckerJacques Necker was a French statesman of Swiss birth and finance minister of Louis XVI, a post he held in the lead-up to the French Revolution in 1789.-Early life:Necker was born in Geneva, Switzerland...
had attempted these reforms, and Calonne attributed their failure to the opposition of the
parlements. Therefore, he called an
Assemblée des notablesThe Assembly of Notables was of a group of notables invited by the King of France to discuss reform of the government.-History:Assemblies of Notables had met in 1583, 1596-97, 1617, 1626, 1787, and 1788. These assemblies included royal princes, peers, archbishops, important judges, and, in some...
in January 1787, to which he presented the
deficitA budget deficit occurs when an entity spends more money than it takes in. The opposite of a budget deficit is a budget surplus. Debt is essentially an accumulated flow of deficits. In other words, a deficit is a flow, and debt is a stock....
in the treasury, and proposed the establishment of a
subvention territoriale, which would be levied on all property without distinction.
Deposition and exile
This suppression of privileges was badly received. Calonne's spendthrift and authoritarian reputation was well-known to the parlements, earning him their enmity. Knowing this, he intentionally submitted his reform programme directly to the king and the hand-picked assembly of notables, not to the sovereign courts or parlements, first. Composed of the old regime's social and political elite, however, the assembly of notables balked at the deficit presented to them when they met at Versailles in February of 1787, and despite Calonne's plan for reform and his backing from the king, they suspected that the controller-general was in some way responsible for the enormous financial strains. Calonne, angered, printed his reports and so alienated the court. Louis XVI dismissed him on 8 April 1787 and exiled him to
LorraineLorraine is a historical area in present-day northeast France. Some of the main cities are Metz, Nancy and Verdun.-Lotharingia:Lorraine was originally an independent kingdom. It was created in 843, when the Carolingian empire was divided between the three sons of Louis the Pious...
. The joy was general in Paris, where Calonne, accused of wishing to augment the imposts, was known as
Monsieur Déficit. Calonne soon afterwards left for
Great BritainThe Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, was a sovereign state in northwest Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1801...
, and during his residence there kept up a polemical correspondence with Necker.
In 1789, when the
Estates-GeneralThe Estates-General of 1789 was the first meeting since 1614 of the French Estates-General, a general assembly representing the French collection of peoples...
were about to assemble, he crossed to
FlandersNord is a department in the far north of France. It was created from the western halves of the historical counties of Flanders and Hainaut , and the Bishopric of Cambrai. The modern coat of arms was inherited from the County of Flanders...
in the hope of offering himself for election, but he was forbidden to enter France. In revenge he joined the
émigréÉmigré is a French term that literally refers to a person who has "migrated out," but often carries a connotation of politico-social self-exile....
group at Coblenz, wrote in their favour, and spent nearly all the fortune brought him by his wife, a wealthy widow. In 1802, having again settled in London, he received permission from
Napoleon BonaparteNapoleon Bonaparte later known as Napoleon I, and previously Napoleone di Buonaparte, was a military and political leader of France whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century.Born in Corsica and trained as an artillery officer in mainland France, Bonaparte rose to prominence...
to return to France. He died about a month after his arrival in his native country.
Calonne's negative reputation and assumed responsibility for France's financial crisis in the years leading to the Revolution of 1789 have been judged unfair by historians such as Munro Price. During his position as controller-general, he had genuinely tried to make amends for his previous spendthrift policies. As a contemporary writer, Chamfort, remarked, Calonne was "applauded when he lit the fire, and condemned when he sounded the alarm." His fall had important significance to the fate of the monarchy in France before 1789. The financial strains made apparent through Calonne's attempts at reform revealed the instability of the monarchy as a whole, which up until then had been managed on the basis of traditional monarchical absolutism: secretly, hierarchically, without public scrutiny of accounts or consent to taxation. For centuries, the monarchy had controlled fiscal policy on its own terms, and when knowledge of an unmanageable and growing deficit became more widely-known, the image was of a failed and, in many ways, corrupt institution. Louis XVI, who had backed Calonne's reform programme wholehearthedly, saw its refusal by the notables and the parlement as a personal failure. Conscientious in his attempts to alleviate the suffering of the French people, it is clear that the king genuinely hoped to implement an enlightened policy with the help of Calonne. Crushed by this opposition to Calonne's project, the king withdrew to long hours of hunting and larger meals. Many historians see the ensuing months as the beginning of the king's bouts of depression.